STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Although his future job might entail cooking burgers or frying Chicken McNuggets, Kevin Brailsford of West Brighton showed up for McDonald’s National Hiring Day in a suit jacket.

"I’m thinking about the future ... [everybody] needs an income, and this is a great opportunity for young adults," he said, while filling out his application at the franchised restaurant on Forest Avenue in West Brighton.

Brailsford, 22, said he’s setting himself up for success by taking advantage whenever opportunity knocks. For applicants like Brailsford, knowing that more than half of McDonald’s operators started their careers "behind the counter" is an encouraging statistic.

Brailsford focuses on drive, and his sentiment was iterated by the other applicants who showed up yesterday in hopes of landing a job. Anthony Hemby, 20, of West Brighton, said, "I would work morning to close any day, if I could."

Potential employees filtered through Golden Arches across Staten Island all day, with the number of applicants reaching more than 50 at the West Brighton store alone by 11 a.m. McDonald’s franchises across the borough reported similar turnouts at the 11 different locations, saying they were pleased with the number of applications received.

Jay Kumar, the manager of the West Brighton location, says that McDonald’s number-one reason for putting together the National Hiring Day was to increase sales by building up the restaurant’s peak hours with a larger staff.

From McDonald’s standpoint, 50 applicants is a positive sign. To each of the applicants vying for one of the six positions available at this particular store, it illustrates that there aren’t enough employment opportunities to meet current demands.

For further evidence of that trend, look no further than Ben Silfen of West Brighton, who is about to graduate from college in May with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. In September, he hopes to be on his way to achieving a master’s degree from Hunter College, but before furthering his education he needs to find a way to fund it.

As other applicants noted, his applications to other chain stores on the Island, such as Duane Reade and Home Depot, have gone unanswered, and he hopes that McDonald’s will give him the break he believes he deserves.

One applicant even came to McDonald’s looking for a second job.

Jacqueline Gordon of West Brighton, 20, currently works as a cashier at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George. She would put a second salary toward daily expenses or perhaps a future in studying journalism.

The negative image associated with the question "do you want fries with that?" is one that Brailsford’s friend and fellow applicant Raul Penailillo, 22, of Bulls Head, assigns to teenagers who don’t know any better. "A job is a job," he noted, and Brailsford agreed, opining that those who avoid applying to McDonald’s are merely lazy.